Claire Sweeney will star in a new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black's song cycle Tell Me on a Sunday that will begin an extensive national tour at Northampton's Royal and Derngate Theatre Aug. 30.

Claire Sweeney

Originally conceived for a television special that starred Marti Webb, it was subsequently staged as half of Song & Dance that premiered at the West End's Palace Theatre (first with Webb, and subsequently succeeded by Sarah Brightman, Gemma Craven, Lulu and others) in 1982. It was subsequently seen in a different production on Broadway in 1985, where Bernadette Peters played it and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. The song half was later re-staged on its own, under its original title Tell Me on a Sunday, at the West End's Globe Theatre (now Gielgud) in 2003, with Denise van Outen as the young English woman newly arrived in New York, where she charts her anxieties and heartaches through a series of songs, and wonders aloud whether she is looking for love in the wrong places.

Sweeney is best known for her TV appearances in shows like "Brookside," "60 Minute Makeover," "Loose Women," "My Big Fat Diet" and "Challenge of a Lifetime." Her musical theatre appearances include playing Roxie Hart in Chicago and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls in the West End.

The production is directed by Tamara Harvey, with musical supervision by Jae Alexander, design by Janet Bird, lighting design by Tim Mitchell and sound design by Gareth Owen.